Israeli forces protected the settlers and fired tear gas and rubber bullets towards Beit Ommar residents. Later, soldiers detained Ahmad Ibrahim Al-Alami at the entrance to Beit Ommar.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said she was looking into the report of the teen’s detention, but said soldiers had earlier fired warning shots after four Palestinians approached the soldiers escorting a “group of hikers enjoying a coordinated hike with the Israeli army near Beit Ommar.”

Additionally, demonstrators chanted against the occupation and waved flags. Among the demands issued by the Popular Committee in Beit Ommar were:

1. Our rights to use this road which is built on a Palestinian land.
2. Our rights to enter freely to Jerusalem which is a Palestinian city without the need to have Israeli security permission.
3. Our rights to move freely on our roads without Israeli apartheid occupation military checkpoints, all the checkpoints (at least 450 in the West Bank alone) have to be removed from Palestinian land.
4. We demand an end to the colonization, apartheid and occupation of our lands in general.

As the activists began playing football, dozens of heavily armed Israeli soldiers attacked the protesters to suppress the peaceful protest by pushing and beating participants. The demonstrators remained steadfast and continued to chant and assert their demands despite this aggression. At a certain point, Israeli soldiers detained Mousa Abu Maria, an organizer with the Beit Ommar Popular Committee and the Palestine Solidarity Project. Mousa was put in a military jeep, but the rest of the demonstrators demanded that he be released immediately. After some time, the soldiers gave in to the demands of the crowd and Mousa was released.

Organizers of the protest asserted that they will continue to carry on their peaceful protests until they have achieved their ultimate goal, ending the occupation and gaining their freedom.

About 50 cars made up a motorcade procession during the action. As soon as the cars arrived at the Israeli checkpoint at the edge of Jericho, Israeli Forces would not let the cars advance. The activists flew Palestinian flags from their cars and asserted their rights to travel anywhere they wished on their own lands in the West Bank. Israeli soldiers detained 5 people during the action, including a 15-year-old girl.

During one of the raids this past week, the soldiers broke into several residences at 3am. The Palestinians were taken from their homes without any explanation given as to why they were being arrested. They were taken away in jeeps to the Gush Etzion settlement which houses a jail and interrogation center. The soldiers broke into an additional home but their intended target managed to escape, and has not been found by the army. The soldiers nonetheless broke many things in the house such as tables and chairs, and harassed the escaped man’s parents.

The names and ages of the arrested are below:

Mohamad Jamal Alkam, 17 years old
Mo’ath Jamal Alkam, 18 years old
Ibrahim Yousef Sabarnah, 21 years old
Khader Fathi Sabarnah, 16 years old
Hamzah Nawaf Sabarnah, 22 years old
Mohamad Shawkat Alkam, 24 years old
Ra’ed Mahmoud Sabarnah, 39 years old
Yousef Mahmoud Alami, 23 years old

The soldiers told the arrested families that their aim was to “check” the homes. However, the time of the break-ins and the harassment and destruction caused suggests the main reason was simply to disturb the families and cause alarm to the community. The soldiers did not seem to be looking for anything in particular

On Friday, December 30th, 2011, several dozen Palestinians in Nabli Saleh, supported by Israeli and international solidarity activists, demonstrated during the villages’ weekly protest. This week the activists released hundreds of black balloons with the names of Palestinian children killed in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead. Several Palestinian and international activists were arrested by Israeli Forces, and soldiers shot tear gas into the crowd in addition to spraying them with skunk water.

The following day, two hundred activists in Chicago also released 344 balloons, one for each of the children killed three years ago. The action was organized by the newly formed Chicago Movement for Palestinian Rights, a primarily youth-based organization. Palestinian-American activists gave speeches decrying the continued Israeli siege and sporadic bombardment of the Gaza Strip before the balloons were released in symbolic solidarity to lift the spirits of Palestinians who continue to live under a brutal occupation.

During the day the families celebrated with dances and speeches. At a certain point, Israeli Forces attacked the gathering shooting tear gas, rubber bullets, and using the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), otherwise known as the scream. LRAD emits high pitched frequencies that have the capacity of leaving those affected dizzy, nauseous, and at times incapacitated. At least four people were injured in the attack, including Linda Shalash, a reporter for Al Quds TV.

Several prisoners from Beit Ommar were released on Sunday as part of the prisoner exchange including Majde Za’aqiq, a member of the National Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in the village. Majde was arrested last August at the weekly unarmed demonstration in Beit Ommar, and he spent the last four months in Israeli prisons. Several Beit Ommar residents were also among those attacked outside of Ofer prison while they were waiting for their family members to be released.

On 24 November Israeli occupation forces demolished two homes, a mosque and a barn, killing livestock, and arrested two young women in the village of Umm Fagarah, in the South Hebron Hills in the occupied West Bank.

The incident was caught on video by Operation Dove, an Italian organization that has maintained a presence in the area since 2004.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILiVe1WPafA

The description of the video states:

At 10 am two bulldozers arrived in the village, escorted by five military vehicles. Without showing any demolition order, the army demolished two houses, a mosque, a barn and a structure containing the generator.

Forced to kneel

During the video, two young Palestinian women can be seen being forced to kneel on the ground by Israeli occupation forces. The heavily-armed soldiers then take the women away in an armored vehicle as observers attempt to question the soldiers. The soldiers respond by demanding to see the observers’ passports and warning other observers to back away.

The description adds that people from neighboring villages rushed to the scene and,

Ignoring the request of the Palestinians to be able to rescue the rabbits, the Israeli army tore down the barn injuring and killing the animals. After the demolitions, the army took away the two girls without providing any explanation on the charges.

The Bedouin village of Umm Fagarah is near the village of al-Tuwani in the area of Hebron, an area where Palestinians, especially schoolchildren, face routine violent attacks by Israeli settlers.

Ethnic cleansing under pretext of lack of “building permits”

As elsewhere in the occupied territories, such as in Beit Hanina north of Jerusalem on the very same day, Israel routinely demolishes Palestinian homes on the pretext that they are built “without permits.” Israel rarely grants such permits to Palestinians to build on their own land. Israel’s home demolitions are crimes under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Meanwhile, as part of its colonization policy, Israel routinely grants retroactive permission for Jewish-only settlements built on occupied land in violation of international law.

27,000 Bedouins in West Bank a target of Israeli ethnic cleansing

The latest demolitions in Umm Fagarah are part of a longstanding effort by Israel to rid the area of its indigenous population. Earlier this month, Israel destroyed the electricity network in the area, as also documented by Operation Dove.

Umm Fagarah is in “Area C” – most of the West Bank – which under the 1993 Oslo Accords remains under full Israeli military control with no role for the Palestinian Authority. Some 27,000 Palestinian Bedouins in Area C are currently targets of forced removal.

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/video-israeli-occupation-forces-demolish-homes-and-mosque-arrest-girls-near-hebron#.TtReXGfCuqA

The two young men were taken to Gush Etzion, no reasons were given for the arrest.

As part of the Israeli apartheid strategy to suppress the Palestinian non-violent peace activism, several arrests and other forms of harassment of the residents of Beit Ommar have occurred this autumn. Report here

Za’aqiq has been detained for 3 month and is charged for one more month. This is part of the Israeli apartheid strategy to suppress the Palestinian non-violent peace activism. Madje was subjected to a bail of 5500 shekels (about 1500 USD.) as a condition for his release.

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Settler buses run by the companies Egged and Veolia, connect Israeli settlements which are built on stolen Palestinian land in the West Bank, and deemed illegal under International Law, with cities within Israel proper. Palestinians are not allowed to ride these buses, one of many separate and unequal and policies which constitutes apartheid. The Palestinian Freedom Riders waited at a settlement bus stop in the Ramallah district in the late afternoon of November 15th, surrounded by international media and supporters. Several settlement bus drivers saw the crowd gathered at the bus stop and did not stop their buses to let the passengers board.

Finally, a settlement bus stopped at the six activists boarded wearing keffiyehs and carrying signs that said things like, “we shall overcome.” After a fifteen minute ride as the bus approached Hizma checkpoint, Israeli Forces boarded the bus and demanded to see the IDs of the six passengers. On seeing that they were Palestinian, they ordered the activists off the bus and threatened them with arrest. The activists refused to leave, and were roughly dragged off the bus one by one and placed under arrest.

Unarmed campaigns such as the Freedom Rides are only expected to grow across Palestine as Israeli apartheid policies continue to be challenged.